Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures, like raising her black-and-white speckled goat, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy woman in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt -- then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words--"Simply to endure is to triumph"--and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision -- will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?

Reviews

4 out of 5

By
Ixchel Gomez-Larrauri
on
Jun 23, 2012

Having studied the issue discussed in this book--human trafficking--for a year I was looking for books relating to the topic. However, most of the books that I found were nonfiction and it really pleased me to find this book. At first I was a bit apprehensive as to how good the book would be in approaching this topic. However, when I started to read this book it was A. Very well written; B. Right on point--not exaggerating or downplaying the issue; and C. Just a great book overall. I was very pleased with the book. I gave it a four because I would have liked to see what happened to the main character at the end. Like I said, I thought that this book was well written and that all of the characters were portrayed as closely to real persons that are trafficked, traffickers, parents of trafficked victims and helpers as possible.